Advertising sign of electric lights



Jan. 28, 1936.

E. MUKASA ADVERTISING SIGN OF ELECTRIC LIGHTS Original Filed Dec. 29,1933 Patented Jan. 28, 1936 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE ADVERTISING SIGNOF ELECTRIC LIGHTS Eizo Mukasa, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, Japan ber 31, 1932 i 2Claims.

My invention relates to an electric lighting sign which is constructedwith liquid pipes overlapped on an electric lamp or gas discharge tube,and in which two or more kinds of liquids having dif- 5 ferent specificgravities, and different colours, flow alternately in said liquid pipesin such a manner that said flowing liquids may produce various colours.

My invention consists in the novel construction and combination ofelements for the purpose described and claimed.

My invention will be better understood from the following descriptionwhen considered in connection with the accompanying drawing and itsscope will be pointed out in the appended claims.

Fig. 1 is a front view of an example of my invention shown partly incross-section.

Figs. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 are sectional views of a luminous lamp ortube and liquid pipes in various arrangements.

Fig. 9 is a sectional view of an example of liquid controlling device.

Fig. 10 is a sectional view of other example of controlling valvethrough which three kinds of liquids flow out alternately.

Referring to the characters and numerals on the drawing, in Fig. 2, l isa luminous lamp such as tubular electric lamp or neon tube which isshown in cross-section. 2 is a liquid pipe which is overlapped on thesaid luminous lamp or tube and preferably made of glass. If necessary,said luminous lamp is provided with a reflecting surface 3 of U-shapedplate on its rear surface, thus the light of aluminous lamp or tube isreflected on the liquid pipe 2. The liquid pipe 2 and luminous lamp ortube may be formed in various shapes or letters and in Figure 1, thesepipes show as an example a frame.

The liquid pipe 2 is connected to pumps 8 and 9 through the branch pipe1 and suction pipes 5 and 6. These pumps are to be operated alternatelyby a lever ll pivoted at H]. A liquid tank I2 is arranged under thesepumps, and said tank contains two kinds of liquids which have differentspecific gravities and will not mix with each other,

for example, water l3 and oil I l. The suction compression stroke ofsaid pump 9, the pump 8 is operated onthe suction stroke. Therefore, thebranch pipe 1 conveys water and oil alternately to the liquid pipe 2through the pipes 5 and 6, thus water l3 and oil M in said liquid pipe 2are moved alternately by the pumping action and are returned to the tankl2 through a pipe ll the water goes to the bottom in the tank and theoil rises to the surface owing to the difference in specific gravitiesso that Water and oil form divided layers in the tank. In the abovedescribed apparatus, if the water is coloured, said coloured water andtransparent oil produce a two coloured sign and when black or opaque orsemi-transparent colours are applied to the water, a running sign havingalternate light and dark portions may be displayed.

In the above described apparatus, special pumps are used but in'myinvention, any other hydraulic machines or controlling valve devices maybe used. For example, the valve as shown in Figure 9 may be employed. Inthis Figure 9, I8 is a shaft rotated at low speed by the proper drivingmeans and I9 is a cam fixed to the shaft l8. 2!] is a valve, 2| is anarm, 22 is a spring, 23 is a pivot of the valve, 24 is a pipecommunicated with the pump or the liquid pipe 2; 25 is a suction orfeeding pipe for light liquid and 26 is a suction or feeding pipe forweighty liquid. The cam is rotated by the shaft I8 and operated in sucha manner that the pipes 25 and 26 are alternately opened or closed asshown by the solid line and the dotted line in Figure 9 and thus heavyand light liquids fiow alternately in the pipe 24, and then theseliquids are fed to the liquid pipe 2.

In above description, the tank contains two kinds of liquids but threeor more kinds of liquids which have different specific gravities so thatthey can not be mixed with each other, may be used. For example, whenwater, mineral oil and caster oil are used, three layers of liquids areproduced in the tank. In this case, three kinds of liquids arecontrolled by the valve device as shown in Figure 10 in such a mannerthat three kinds of liquids may flow alternately in the liquid pipe 2through the pipes 25, 26 and 2?, and thus a particularly attractive signmay be displayed by applying difierent colours to said liquids.

If the period of the oscillating motion of the valve 20 is comparativelylong in the case of two or three colours running sign, one colouredlight may be changed along letters or figures of the sign from one endto the other end gradually.

Figure 3 shows a cross-section of a luminous lamp or tube l and a liquidpipe 2 which is formed as a fiat tube and is attached to said luminouslamp or tube. Figure 4 shows a luminous lamp or tube I insertedconcentrically in the liquid pipe 2. Figure 5 shows a modification oftwo liquid pipes 2 and 2' arranged on both sides of a separatingluminous lamp or tube I in such a manner'that the sign can be seen fromthe both sides. Figure 6 shows another modification con: sisting of oneglass tube in which the luminous lamp or tube l and liquid pipe 2 areformed by a separating partition. Figures '7 and 8 show othermodifications in which the luminous lamp or tube l and a plurality ofliquid pipes 2, 2', 2", 2" are provided and other liquids, besides waterand oil, may be employed.

What I claim as new and desire to secure by containing a plurality ofliquids of different colors and different specific gravities, and meansfor o'ausingthe liquids of the layers in the tank to alternately flowthrough said liquid pipe.

2. An advertising 'electric light sign comprising a liquid pipeoverlapped on an electric luminous member and a liquid tank connected tosaid liquid. pipe, said liquid tank containing a plurality of liquids ofdifferent colors and different specific gravities, with means forcausing the liquids of the layers in the tank to alternately flowthrough said liquid pipe, said means comprising a hy draul'ic pumpingmachine and leading pipes, and said liquid pipe. being arranged in frontof the luminous member with one end of said pipe in communication withthe liquid of each layer in the tank through a branch pipe, suctionpipes and pumps and the other end of the liquid pipe in communicationwith the tank through a common delivery pipe.

EIZO MUKASA.

